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What an action packed, full weekend. I was hardly home at all the entire weekend. It started out Friday night with a feast at Korea House with the lovely and charming
      Ugggghhhh. We're hoping that our household has been infected with only the 24-hour variety of "you might want to carry a bucket" virus. Thankfully, we've been able to endure via unconsciousness most of the day. We think we caught it from a wayward nephew, whose school informs us it's most likely something that'll keep us down for a day or so. In the meantime, I've discovered that I may need to invest in more comfy couches at some point. :)But neither sickness nor sleet nor ion storm will keep me from my appointed blogging(eventually), so let's start off with Wil Wheaton sneaking into JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie. He did some voiceover work for one of the Romulans, which can be heard in this clip. I was also a little late to finding out about his role in "The Big Bang Theory," where one of the show's characters challenges him to and then plays against him in a Magic-like game. Both TV series starting with "S" pleased me this week. "Supernatural" pulled out the tongue-in-cheek, trapping Winchester brothers in "TV Land." This could have been a disaster, but the actors and writers managed to make it quite fun. There was even an appearance of "Smeat," the Spam/Treet product that has made quite a number of appearances in other productions. The commercial for a "flare up" remedy was also a scream. In "Stargate: Universe," the show took an immediate up-tic the second someone claimed their name was "Philip Fry." Whoever is writing Eli's dialogue is doing a bang-up job. I'm not so sure about how the episode concluded (it seemed a little pat), but what concerns me is that the next episode appears to deal with time travel, which is almost always a bad sign. "Flashforward" may have gotten to something the novel pointed out regarding the visions. Maybe. We'll see. And the film "2012" is apparently going to continue on TV. This could be a solution to the "sequel problem" a lot of franchise seem to have. I mean, nothing's deader than being canceled on TV, right? Lastly, we're coming up on the KC Game Fair, where not only will I be in attendance, I'll be selling off some of the geeky items I've collected over the years that are now taking up valuable person-space in our house. A lot of them are Star Trek: The Next Generation toys, including the shuttlecraft Goddard and the Transporter playset, among other things. So while I go see if I can face a bowl of chicken broth, here's some items of potential interest: - Because I love how MST3K will usually have someone call out "and we have a title" whenever a character in a movie says the name of the movie, I really dig this compilation of title utterances in films. - Reminding me of all those old Sears toy catalogs from days of yore, here's a list of the most popular Christmas toys since 1960 to the present. - "Red Storm" is a mech game along the lines of "Smash TV," with upgrades and explosions a-plenty. - I wish this thing had been invented when I was working in an office with a community fridge. - Will Smith and Columbia pictures are making a Risk movie. What could go wrong? - Anyone out there writing a ghost story? Here are 10 consistent story elements to tales of the ectoplasmic. - Activision hired a private investigator to take down a thief selling hot copies of 'Mondern Warfare 2' along with one of the buyers who wanted to make illegal copies for sale. Hmm... sounds like the plot of a video game, maybe? :) - This game has a marvelously "hand made" look to it: How My Grandfather Won The War. Navigate your plane past obstacles, or "splat" them with paint to render them harmless. - Lastly, a preview of Prep & Landing, one of the first new holiday specials I've seen since I wore footy-pajamas. 10 comments | post a comment
It's been a busy week filled with lots of learning and lots of training. And coming home at night and crashing. I don't really have anything exciting to add to this, except I am happy to be here, they are happy to have me.
 A quick note to everyone having trouble getting to my main site: I've got a trouble ticket in with one of the tech support dudes and he's taking a look at what the trouble could be. Hopefully it'll clear up soon, if it hasn't already. Thanks for your patience!V was rebooted on Tuesday. While a decent update with some cool moments, it had some odd decisions, mostly in the early going. Like having pointless action (Tyler riding his motorcycle, dodging heavy traffic) while interesting stuff is already going on (like a freakin' spaceship flying over the city). They also used water as one of the reasons the Visitors came to Earth. There's abundant water in the solar system that isn't in a gravity well. I'm also not sure what mineral would be available on Earth that couldn't be found in the asteroid belt (though I could easily be mistaken). And true, it's a ruse, but you'd want a ruse that wouldn't raise alarm bells among scientists. What I didn't like outright was the first scene of someone spraypainting a red "V" was on a YouTube video of some pro-Visitor youths tagging a wall in support of "the V's." And the show lacked a creep-tastic theme like the first mini, though sacrificing theme tunes for more commercial time is the trend these days. Also, that original tune didn't survive the transition to a series, and an appropriately 80's-esque version was composed. Mostly, though, the structure of the first program seemed designed to "hurry up and get to the bit where the resistance starts," which is where it got really interesting. If the show gets more coherent and less scattered after this, I'll probably enjoy it more. We're going to get four episodes at least, and if the ratings work out, we'll get more "V" in March. Oh, and a "location 4400" was mentioned, a nice hat-tip to previous work by scriptwriter Scott Peters... who is now no longer helming the show and has been replaced with a producer from "Chuck." Now a video game item that even non-video gamers might find intriguing: apparently, a game was released in Japan for the Wii, and it had a dismal opening, garnering only 100 sales in its first week. I predict that will change soon, as it's a game so off the wall, I think it will be purchased out of morbid curiosity. From what I can gather, you're a cat trying to pass initiation into a company run by another cat. This is what the trailer looks like, and there are several videos of gameplay which border on mind-boggling. I think we might be seeing the beginning of a legendary title, though perhaps not in the way intended by the creators. "North 40" continues to do well among critics, scoring an "unequivocally one of the best horror comics in years" from Comixtreme dot com, and the guys from Tales from the Parents Basement were kind enough to let me yammer about it and other things over the phone at them. On the topic of horror writing, it looks like Stephen King is continuing to spend his retirement from writing as a writer, putting out a book called "Under the Dome." It even has a teaser trailer. Is it me, or do you think he got the idea after seeing "The Simpsons Movie? There are worse places to get inspiration, I suppose, like: - An interesting experiment in childhood culture: Four children list what they think the names of various Lego pieces are (scroll down for the chart). I just called most of them "that darn piece I can't find." - I didn't realize that Scientology celebrated the winter holidays or that they had a gift catalog. Someone found it put it online for our shopping needs. I'm not sure I can think of a book set of any sort I'd plunk down 2 grand for, goatskin covers or no... - After recently posting about the world's largest rubber band ball, I felt I had to offer equal time to the world's largest meatball. - What with "Ghost Hunters" and other paranormal offerings becoming more common, the webcomic Wondermark gives us the proper plurals for most supernatural entities. - Here's a cute puzzle game where you explore via clicking and dragging to give a bunny what it desires: Full Moon. To get started, click repeatedly on the rabbit. - This is either awesome or disgusting, depending on the ingredients: Leftover Halloween Candy Pie. - Most of these, however, are just plain awesome: New design concepts for teapots. I think Captain Picard's ready room would look spiffy with several of these. - Here's a clip from the upcoming Doctor Who animated special, Dreamland. I sure hope the writing is good, because the animation looks very low-quality. I think I prefer the previous technique to this "Shrek on the cheap" look. This anime version ain't too shabby, either. - Weird Al has written a tribute to 'The Trashmen,' the group that gave us the 1964 hit, "Surfin' Bird." - I don't think I've ever posted a flash-based pinball game before, so here's Power Pinball. It gains extra cred from me because you can use the flippers to "hold" the ball, just like in real pinball. 13 comments | post a comment
• posted the gallery of this year's Halloween pumpkins at Wunderland.com: http://tinyurl.com/yj89vgx
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Not to confuse anyone who may not know, I'm not in graduate school I'm working at the graduate school.
 It looks like we might be in for a remake of 'Dune' hitting our theaters sometime in the near future. Frank Herbert's novel has, I think, helped bring together the "big idea" sci-fi crowd with the "epic hero" aficionados, both in the Lynch film and the Sci-Fi/SighFie mini series. While I wouldn't put the David Lynch film forth as perfect by any means, I still prefer it to the miniseries for several reasons:1. The movie's cast was better: From the Shaddam IV to the Shadout Mapes, the movie has the miniseries beat hands down. Sting is always going to be the greatest Feyd Rautha, and Dean Stockwell is a hard Dr. Yueh to top. You can't beat Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck, and any movie with Max Von Sydow in it automatically gets several awesome points from the get-go. Even the comparatively unknown Kyle MacLachlan's Paul Atreides bests Alec Newman's performance, who came off as "whiny" to me. 2. The movie's soundtrack was really good: I still can't believe the band that wrote Rosanna came up with the soundtrack which included Take My Hand, which played over the closing credits. And don't think we didn't notice the attempts at replicating the electric guitar riffs in your own prodution, miniseries... 3. The movie's sets and costumes were amazing: The Harkonnens were geniunely scary. You could almost smell the Baron. The nobles looked like decadent royalty (a look used to good effect by the Centauri in "Babylon-5"). The Spacing Guild Navigator was scary and fascinating to behold, and his retinue were pretty creepy as well. The miniseries, however, put Feyd in a toga with a triangle on a stick coming up out of his collar. Princess Irulan had that weird butterfly dress in the first episode, and the Baron looked like he came from a production of "Something Funny Happened on the way to the Forum." 4. The movie was often more true to the novel: Sure, they had to cut stuff, and the Weirding Way probably had to change from a martial art to a kind of zap-gun because they couldn't pull off Matrix-y "wire fu" to demonstrate a nigh-unbeatable fighting technique. In the mini, they had hours to play with, and they still either re-wrote stuff or cut key things out. It's been a long time since I suffered through the mini, but didn't Princess Irulan and Paul meet in the first episode (which doesn't happen until the end of the novel), followed by her exit with her Sardaukar bodyguards? For those who haven't read the novel, Sardaukar are basically intergalactic survivors of an "Escape From New York" type planet who are then turned into soldiers that you drop on planets inhabited by people you think are breathing too much and not bleeding enough. Having them guard a princess is probably about as wise as having my gaming buddies guard a pizza. The mini also had lackluster effects at times that would have made Doctor Who producers blush (I think every scene involving the underside and loading ramp on any flying vehicle had the actors casting shadows on the "sky" behind them) and it didn't compel me to give it a second viewing like the film does. That's not to say the film doesn't have flaws. The movie has dated special effects (lots of bluescreen work is in evidence) and the bits it had to edit out from the novel can make it very confusing for those who haven't read the book. The original opening dialogue from Princess Irulan starts out well but flushes any sense of gravitas down the sandworm when she utters her "I forgot to tell you" line. A different opening was created for the extended version, but while it's a more complete look at the Dune-iverse, it probably confuses more people than it draws in. It also has illustrations that are a bit campy (though they remind me of science fiction novel dustjackets of yore). So we're possibly going to get a third crack at the first novel. On a technical level, they should be able to make it look like a solid, huge universe, but I believe casting is going to be even more important. Believable performances by good thespians would make or break the effort, I think. And I really wouldn't mind if they went back and used H.R. Giger's original concept art for the '84 film (click the titles for larger versions) that was largely passed over. Turning to other movies, a trailer for an upcoming game in the Alien vs. Predator (vs. Space Marines) franchise looks pretty durn fun. I got a taste of the last version of this first-person shooter the last go-round, but only enough to realize that (1) I stank at it and (2) I needed a computer that didn't make so much smoke and fire when I tried to run games on it. I'd love for there to be a "story" mode in it, but even if there isn't, it'll probably be more enjoyable (or at least make more sense) than the last few films. That's gotta hurt a few Hollywood egos, given the usual result when video games go to film. :) Speaking of film franchises, Joss Whedon is allegedly offering a whole ten grand for the "Terminator" franchise. This should happen for a number of reasons: 1. It can't possibly get any worse. 2. Joss in charge most likely means more Summer Glau as a cybernetic killing machine, which I approve of. 3. Ah-nold, were he to return, might get some better dialogue (or, in the case of "Terminator 3," at least some new material that isn't a callback to every previous film in the series). 4. The resistance would have snappy conversations with each other as they fight in a cowardly valiant sort of way. 5. And finally, after all the monkeying with the timeline, John Connor will be erased from history, and the true savior of humanity will arise: Mal Reynolds, great-great-grandfather and namesake of a certain starship captain, who will use the machines' technology to begin the great migration off of Earth and into the 'verse. Shiny...* * this is the closest I want to come to writing fanfic... though technically, if I do get work writing for established comic book characters, I would be doing fanfic, but for money, which makes it okay, right? And now, a comic book follow-up: "Planetary" recently finished its 27-issue run, and for fans of the book, it was a long, long time coming. The blog, "The Post Game Show" has compiled a list of all of the things that have happened or started during "Planetary"'s rather irregular installments. Not that it's wasn't worth it, and I hope for more. I think I've more than run off at the keyboard in an overly-geeky way, so I figure it's time to bring on the traditional dumping of the links: - We start with some Halloween leftovers: A kid in an amazing Jareth costume, an idea for next year that could blow the minds of your targets, and if you want to mess with the minds of those coming to your house for candy, #6 on this list sounds like a winner. - Here's a game I think those smarter than me will enjoy: Exploit. "Hack" into fictional computer systems using a puzzling array of packet routing/bending/stopping icons representing security obstacles. - Black and WTF is a collection of odd black-and-white photos that make you wonder what their origins were. Nothing appeared to be a workplace hazard, but if anyone runs across anything unsavory, give us a shout. - Reason #44586 why I love the internet: Big Ben's Twitter feed. - So you think you know your fonts? Give Typewar a try and test your desktop publishing mettle. - I'll give this the title I saw when I found it: 2 people, 1 guitar. - This needs to be a screensaver: JavaScript Tetris on autopilot. - From the "so evil it's cute" files, we bring you The Adventures of Little C'thulhu. Gather the kids around the computer; it's time they learned of the Elder Gods by way of "Hello Kitty." - We close with mindless blowy-uppiness: Pyroblossom is a good ol' top-down scrolling shoot-em-up. Pilot your 'chopper with the arrow keys, blast everything, and get powerups. 20 comments | post a comment
I've spent a bit of the day cleaning out my old email folders, wholesale deleting. In the end, it'll be easier this way to get my email transferred over to the Graduate School. As I'm doing this (and some of this stuff goes back 7 years), I've run across tons of emails from R, written in a much happier, more hopeful time, and it's bringing up a lot of painful memories and feeling right now. Luckily it's lunch time, so I'm going to ditch this place soon.
I drove up to Dallas (well, more Arlington) yesterday in record time. Just under 3 hours. It was great driving weather, not a cloud in the sky, and no wind. I got here in time for us to go to lunch. We hit up a pho place Rhonda had wanted to try, and had a very tasty lunch of pho and eggrolls and spring rolls and hot tea. After, we hit up Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble. When we came back, the Simpsons napped and I chilled. We then made eyeball devilled eggs and hit up the ORAC party.
Free from 7 years of stress, and increasing hell. When I first started working in ECE, I loved it. I loved my job, I loved my supervisor, I love the students. And if the chairman had just left me alone to do the job I was doing very well, I'd still love it there. But the management of that department has increasingly gone downhill in the last several years. A lot of my fun left when my then-supervisor left for the University of Virginia. I still had my friend Brian, and I'll miss him (along with several other coworkers). But the last several years there have been hell, and I'm free of it!
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